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The following information was taken from the Girl Scout Research Institute from the Dec. 2012 Girl Scout Cookie Program showing what Girls Scouts learned through the program's five business skills:Goal Setting: 80 percent of girls set goals and created objectives to reach them.Decision Making: 77 percent of girls made important decisions, learning to work as a team to develop a business plan, decide when and where to sell cookies, and determine what to do with the money they earned.Money Management: 85 percent of girls increased their money management skills as they developed budgets, took cookie orders, and handled money.People Skills: 75 percent of girls developed people skills, learning to talk to, listen to, and work with different kinds of people.Business Ethics: 83 percent of girls developed business ethics, learning to fulfill promises to customers and considering how best to contribute to their communities with their earnings.

Girl Scout cookie program teaches business, life skills

Health, Faith and Blueprint

The Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia recently started an annual tradition that appeals to most anyone harboring a sweet tooth: Girl Scout cookies are now on sale.

But buying cookies from your local troop does more than satisfy a craving for Tagalongs, Thin Mints and Savannah Smiles. It also invests in a business literacy program meant to teach scouts business skills.

The Girl Scout Cookie Program instills in scouts such skills as leadership ability, business practices, goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics.

“The Girl Scout cookie business is the largest girl-run business in the world,” said Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia Communications Manager Jacki Gaytan. “The program gives girls the opportunity to learn life skills that can help them in their personal and work futures. They not only learn to be more confident with people, assert themselves and to sell a product effectively. They also gain practical money handling experience not taught at school.”

Before each cookie sale, girls in the troops develop a business plan and decide when and where to sell cookies. They also decide what their personal and troop goals will be and if they will use part of the money raised toward activities and trips or to help with a community service project such as donating a portion of the money to the Humane Society, a women’s shelter or other nonprofit.

Girl Scout badges offer another opportunity for girls to hone their skills and gain an understanding of the business world as each level of Girl Scouts — Daisy, Brownie, Junior, Cadette, Senior and Ambassador - has age appropriate financial literacy badges that can be earned through the cookie program.

Incentives include trips for the girl that sells 1,000 or 1,500 boxes of cookies or more. This year, the girl that sells 1,000 or more boxes of cookies will earn a trip to Wild Adventures in Valdosta. The girl that sells 1,500 boxes of cookies or more will go on a four-day trip to Disney World.

Girls also have a chance to earn “Cookie Dough,” which can be used to buy new uniforms, items in the Girl Scout shop or to attend Girl Scout camp in the summer.

“The skills they learn through the Girl Scout Cookie Program give them a foundation for the rest of their lives,” Gaytan said. “If girls can learn these financial skills now it will help them be more successful in the future whether it’s being the CEO of a big company, a stay-at-home mom, a business owner, or even President of the United States.”

To find Girl Scout cookies in the area residents can download the organization’s Cookie Finder App. Users can enter a zip code to find the times and locations of booths near them.

“In years past, you might drive around town hoping to find a Girl Scout cookie booth and never find one. Now, the information is at people’s finger tips,” Gaytan said.

Cookies are on sale now through March 9. Anyone who buys cookies will have a chance to donate a box or case of cookies to the Operation Girl Scout Cookies from Home program, which sends cookies to service men and women overseas.

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